Trenton Council president snafu leads to confusion

TRENTON — Kathy McBride and Phyllis Holly-Ward should have never held the council president title.

That was determined at Tuesday’s council meeting when there was discussion if the public body was going to reorganize, something it has done the past three years with the current group.

Under an ordinance from 1967, only one reorganization should be held at the start of a four-year council term.

That means when Councilman George Muschal was elected president in July 2010, he should have retained the post for all four years.

Instead, McBride succeeded him after his first year as council president, who in turn was followed by Holly-Ward.

“In the good spirit of Councilman Muschal when he first came on said that he would like to switch around the council president every year,” Holly-Ward said. “During his term, we should have been advised immediately by the clerk that council needs to change the ordinance before the next person comes on. Instead it wasn’t done that way.”

Due to the oversight, officials will vote Thursday who will control the council’s agenda and officiate council meetings for the final year of the term, which should lead to a fervent debate.

Councilman Zachary Chester wants to extend Holly-Ward’s term as president for one more year, something he says she expressed to him.

“I think moving forward, Councilwoman Holly-Ward — not taking anything away from the other two — is working real hard as council president in trying to implement things that will only help Trentonians when it comes to spending,” he said, noting her effort to tie conditions to the Trenton hotel’s $3 million bond proposal. “I want to continue to see that type of work.”

Holly-Ward said council could also decide to revert the president seat back to Muschal for a year.

“As lawmakers, we have to follow the law,” she said. “We can’t make wrong right when we feel it is right for us. Now that we know better, we have to do better. There’s no excuse.”

Chester said he’s not a supporter of rotating the president for a couple of reasons.

“That is stressful on the staff and on the council members because now we have to conform to that person’s style of presiding over the council meetings,” he said. “We’ve had three different styles.”